The Big Donkey, Adam Dunn, was a big ass. Carlos Quentin’s status is TBD even when we know the ETA which we don’t right now. This leaves Dayan Viciedo playing. It’s addition by the subtraction of Ozzie’s choices. “Can Brent Lillibridge play first and third at the same time?” Things Ozzie has recently asked his bench coach. Viciedo was always a top Cuban raftee and, through his first four games, he has a homer, steal and is batting .538. Maybe we shouldn’t defrost Ted Williams’ head just yet, but you don’t need Mapquest to know he’s going in the right direction. Not to mention, I’m not even sure Mapquest still exists. Start a viable service and Google will take you over. I like your concept, Groupon, I will now do the exact same thing. With Viciedo’s 3rd base eligibility, he’s worth a flyer anywhere you need a corner infidel. That’s right, patch Dayan into your team for Golda Meir. (If you didn’t need to Google that last line, props to you.) Anyway, here’s some more players to buy or sell this week in fantasy baseball:

BUY

Jack Hannahan – Perennial Carson favorite hit three homers in two days this week and .420 (stoner!) in August. Didn’t hurt that he brought his liger to the clubhouse to scare Lonnie Chisenhall.

Omar Infante – Speaking of the devil. He’s been relatively hot recently. If your relative is hitting near .300 over the last week.

Luke Hughes – Has four homers in the last week. Maybe you should pick him up. That’s my Hughes clues.

Dee Gordon – Guess who’s back?! Dee Gordon, man (and three girl readers). C’mon, that was easy. His name is in front of this blurb. If you need speed, Dee Gordon’s like Jeff Gordon without the car. I have no idea if that makes sense. I don’t know Nascar. I’m guessing there are cars though since it’s in the name. It’s not Nasbicycle.

Cliff Pennington – Hitting near .400 over the last week and has three steals in the last five games. Plus, if you have a category in your league for Players That Sound Like They Should Be Wearing Plaid Pants, Cliff Pennington wins you that category.

Jose Altuve – Through 154 ABs, he has 2 homers, 4 steals and he’s hitting .305. So, of course, his ESPN ownership went down from 9% to 7.4% this week. I’m guessing Craig Biggio owns 20,000 fantasy teams and is bitter.

Mike Trout – 4 homers and batting .400 since his recall. He’s a bit green, Scioscia may not play him, which has me blue, but if you don’t add him, you’re yellow. And that’s my rainbow Trout.

Brandon Allen – I was thinking to myself, “Grey, there’s no reason to mention Allen this week. He must already be over 50% owned in ESPN. Also, could you scratch your back? I’m itchy. Thanks!” Turns out Allen is nowhere near 50% owned.

Austin Jackson – I’m not a fan of a leadoff hitter with a sub-.320 OBP. Rickey Henderson says, “Rickey Henderson says amen!” But Jackson is currently hot, hitting near .400 over the last week.

Alejandro De Aza – This is a pretty tentative buy. He has been hot, but I think that could end by the time I finish this sent–

David Murphy – He’s the type that is unownable for the better part of a season then becomes relevant. I wouldn’t put Baby Boo-Boo’s college fund on it, but I think he’s about to go through one of those relevant stretches.

Jordan Schafer – I wouldn’t pick up Schafer outside of a NL-Only league. I don’t like where he’s playing, not a huge fan of his but he does provide some speed and a bit of Zimmermania.

Brandon McCarthy – Last game, he K’d 10. He hasn’t had one month over a 4.00 ERA all year. As for his lousy record… Too many Urkels on his team, that’s why his wins low.

Javier Vazquez – Hey, I was burned by him too. I get it. But he’s been good for two months now. Stop being a pill and pick him up.

Doug Fister – Usually the lack of Ks is a problem — a than but no thans, but over his last 21 2/3 IP he has 18 Ks. So that’s an old issue of Fister’s Journal, which I do not subscribe to and would not Google.

Bobby Parnell – You know what the kids in Washington Park say about this part of the Buy section? Coca, puff-puff, SAGNOF!

Sergio Romo – You can’t tell me the whole time he was growing out his beard it wasn’t some kind of All About Eve plot brewing behind the scenes. Just happens that Wilson gets hurt and Romo jumps in to replace him and all the windyweather fans in San Fran are like, “Hey, our touristy beards we bought at the souvenir stand still work!” Then again, Santiago Casilla, Jeremy Affeldt or Ramon Ramirez might get saves too.

Steve Cishek – I think he gets the most saves in Florida in September and Nunez has multiple meltdowns. It’s called a hunch, like how Guy Fieri eats a sandwich.

Freddie Freeman – Had a heck of a season, if you’re the type to use a word like heck. Almost sorta blasphemy! Freeman has 18 homers through 5 months. What’s that? 3.6 homers per month? It’s worth taking a chance on a hot hitter; you’re not gonna miss out on much with Freeman. And what on earth does sixth-tenths of a homer look like anyway?

Michael Cuddyer – Another guy who has 18 homers on the year, but this schmohawk is also dealing with a hurt wrist. Ride or Cuddyer? I’d ride.

David Freese – He has 8 homers in 266 ABs this year. So, unless he gets 400 ABs in September, I’m thinking you can move on to a hot schmotato.

Nelson Cruz – This kinda goes for any player that is on the DL. If you don’t have DL room, lose him and move on.

Alexi Ogando – You guys had a good run. Get his address and you can send him a postcard. But get him off your team.

Doode!….maybe it’s just me and my pre-LDW euphoria, but that was a stunningly amazing post….you are obv on top of your game and ready for the stretch run…is it a coincidence that i recently moved into first place and have begun to pull away? i think not. have a great weekend

I actually kind of like Schafer at this point. Its kind of a cliche, but SB do tend to be a movable category down the stretch. He’s probably not someone I’d add in 3OF leagues, but in 5OF, 12 team formats where guys like Bourjos and Trout might be owned already, I like him better than some other considerations like Tony Gwynn, Jr. and if position isn’t an issue EYJr and Pennington. The Astros may be pathetic, but he’s leading off and playing every day, so that means lots of PAs. His GB and LD% are both way up since going to the Astros, and even if he starts hitting more balls in the air, Minute Maid is a much more forgiving home park than Atlanta. He’s got a respectable walk rate and he’s an efficient basestealer so R should be acceptable even in a bad lineup, and now that he’s leading off the volume of attempts figures to pick up, and he was already on a 40+ SB pace. He looks like a solid Michael Bourn-lite to me and someone who could sniff 10 SB over the season’s final month, trying to secure himself an every day job next year. Anything he gives you in AVG/HR/RBI would be a bonus with that kind of production. He may not be a must own, but I do think he could be relevant in mixed leagues that are deeper than average.

Tabata’s looking like a drop, no? He was killing the ball when he came back from the DL but now he looks like he’s in pain with every swing. I got 10 days before I need him to produce. Allen or Schafer or Hold?

@VinWins: I saw that recently too. Even though he’s not much of a GB pitcher (around 30% with runners on), you’d think that he’d induce at least one double play. I wonder who pitched the most innings in a season without recording a double play. Seems very unlikely that anyone has gone a full season without doing so.

Good morning Grey. Despite limited moves, I’m not sure that I can afford to have Teix taking up a productive spot in my lineup throughout this playoff weekend. While I ignore my kids and family liger (nice reference; big fan of ND?) this morning as I explore all of their matchups for this weekend and upcoming week, who would you recommend as a temp. and possibly permanent replacement from all of this goodness: Allen, Viciedo, Hannahannnannnanan, Hughes, or Montero (& drop Santana down to 1B)? Thank you kindly & happy Labor Day.

Maybe I’ve been sniffin the frankinsence, but with multiple leftie pitchers coming up, I’m kind of leaning towards Montero finally making a statement in the Bronx. That’s all out of me. Appreciate the guidance as always.

the shows that i’ve been listening to all season are done under the
Seamheads.com blog …. (Mike Lynch might be able to give you some
pointers , or maybe even bring you in under his umbrella of podcasts …
Big League Chew is his primary sponsor) .

some shows are 30 minutes . some , an hour .
you can hear dogs barking in the background , and an occasional 6-year
old child interrupting daddy during his air time .
some report on specific teams (tigers , st. louis , sf/oak , seattle)
some just talk fantasy …. drafts , trades , hot players , etc.
some interview authors .
hell , one show reports on a wooden-bat league in appalachia , north carolina .
and , many have multiple “hosts” … who , thru the magic of the inter-web ,
combine from various locations and collaborate on shows .
some have “call – in” numbers for listeners … some don’t .
all of the pod-casters write their own blogs , it seems …. maybe not .

mike lynch seems like a decent human being .
start by picking his brain .

my gut feeling tells me that if you were to do a pod-cast , whether
under the auspices of seamheads.com , or not , that your following
would sky-rocket your show to the top of the charts .

Another thing to factor in is that I think should have an edge on saves with my 3 closers (Kimbrel, Walden, Parnell) over his two (Axford, Soria).

I feel like I have 2 options:

Option 1. Stick with my current roster, but go into the week only planning to start Verlander and Bumgarner. We have a minimum 18 innings requirement, but those 3 starts should get me there. If they don’t I could start Strasburg on Sunday vs LAD assuming he looks good in his 1st start or use Hudson @STL.

Obviously this is a big gamble because if any of those starts are bad, I’m screwed. Assuming they pitch the way I would expect, I should win ERA, WHIP, and HRs allowed. If I also win saves, that gives me the majority of the pitching cats. Puts a lot of pressure on my offense though as I would have to at least split the 7 cats there.

Option 2. I currently have 4 bench position players and I can drop 2 or 3 of those guys. I could also dump one of my current pitchers with a bad matchup. Then pick up 2-4 2 start guys to give myself the edge on starts for the week.

Picking up a few of these guys would give me a shot to compete in every cat, but I’m still not sure I like my chances of competing in several cats, esp. in Ks given that most of the 2 start guys available aren’t reliable strikeout guys. Also, we have a moves limit of 75 for the season and I’m currently at 58 so streaming 1 start guys isn’t really a viable option unless I’m desperate the last few days of the week.

If you think I should go with option 2, which 2 start guys would you pick up?

Two start Ubaldo too risky if I need to be cautious with WHIP and ERA? Also do I dare trust Stauffer at AZ (I would gamble on home vs. SF but the gopheritis he has scares me)? would you rate either of these over Bedard at TB or Wandy at WAS? thx as always!

I’m desperate and confused so I’ll ask a broader question: I have a 3.45 ERA and 1.204 WHIP and will likely need a 3.35 and 1.185 to earn enuff pitching pts to win my league. I’ll also probably need 10-12 wins, but ERA and WHIP are more important. Undecided whether I should be aggressive and take risks on two start pitchers or play it conservative … who would you sit? I can use up to 6 starters given my lead in saves, but it might make sense only start 5: Hamels @ MIL, Marcum vPHI, Ervin v SEA, Bedard @ TB, Wandy @ WA, Billz @ WA, Ubaldo vs DET and @ CHW, Stauffer vs SF and @ AZ? appreciate any help! thx.

Hey Grey, considering dumping Bourjos or Ryan Roberts in favor of Pennington, Dee Gordon, Luke Hughes or Kelly Johnson for my final roster spot to start the playoffs. I need speed, but KJ has heated up so he might be more valuable than a dedicated speed guy like Gordon. Pennington seems like he might be a good mix between the two as he’s stealing bases and picking up RBIs. Hughes position flexibility would be nice also, but I’m skeptical as to whether he’ll stay hot. TIA.